Tech Review: 1) What Will Replace Facebook? 2) Jeff Bezos in 1999 (video)

Tech Review (TR 2019-02-16)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) What Will Replace Facebook? 2) Jeff Bezos In 1999 On Amazon's Plans Before The Dotcom Crash, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: Globalization in Transition, Germany Vulnerable, Bill Gross, John Paulson, Byron Wien, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Big Tech and more, 5) End Note: Velocity.

1) What will replace Facebook? 

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has dominated the social-media landscape for the past 15 years. "But breaches of its users' privacy mean it is now slipping out of favour. Could an emerging technological movement take its place?"--The Economist.com video above published Feb 4, 2019. See also There Are Storm Clouds On Facebook's Horizon--seekingalpha.com.

Also note: Headlines Aren't Reality--seekingalpha.com: "At 22 times earnings, FB is my highest conviction buy of 2019."

2) Jeff Bezos In 1999 On Amazon's Plans Before The Dotcom Crash

Jeff Bezos explained his ambitious vision for Amazon $AMZN in a 1999 interview. He made clear the company’s focus was on “great customer service” and discussed his real estate strategy. Bezos said, “There’s no guarantee that Amazon.com can be a successful company. What we’re trying to do is very complicated.” He added, “Scale is important to us and we’re going to go after that kind of scale.” CNBC.com video published Feb 8, 2019.

See also:

• Bezos Complexifiers from Ms. Sanchez to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez: "we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens"--aboutamazon.com.
• Amazon Isn’t Interested in Making the World a Better Place by Kara Swisher--"New Yorkers who expected better bought into the myth that tech companies are more than just self-interested businesses."--NYTimes.com Op-ed.
• 'New York’s Ejection of Amazon Is the Start of a Movement'--citylab.com. New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Cheers Amazon’s Withdrawal as a Victory Over ‘Greed’--bloomberg.com.
• Bezos's Wild Days: 'Dick Pics,' Lurid Selfies, Blackmail, Drama--bloomberg.com.
• Bezos Selfie Controversy Triggers Alarm For Billionaires Worldwide.
• Why Amazon $AMZN Is Undervalued--seekingalpha.com.
• Size Matters: When Amazon Went From Big to Unbelievably Big--Amazon now has 288M sq. ft. of warehouses, offices, retail stores, and data centers; all retail adds up to less than 20M sq. ft. and all of AWS uses 10M sq. ft.--the data on the company’s real-estate holdings reveal a remarkable inflection point--theatlantic.com.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +2.4% | S&P 500 Index +2.5% | DJIA +3.1%

The Long View:

Investor Notes: with the world awash in $8.6 trillion of negative-yielding debt, money managers are wading again into fringe fixed-income markets across the globe--“We’ve seen a huge psychological swing toward greed from fear in the space of a few weeks,” said Jamie Stuttard, co-head of global macro fixed-income at Robeco Group in London (robeco.com).

Americans' Confidence in Their Finances Keeps Growing--gallup.com; Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon says US economy 'chugging along,' chance of recession quite small--cnbc.com.

U.S. Oil & Brexit: the United States is now the largest global crude oil producer (production to grow to 14 mbpd by 2030 according to EIA.gov), and the U.S. has already become the United Kingdom's largest supplier of oil for the first time since the Suez crisis of 1956, reports the Financial Times.

Trump Effect or Not, Globalization is in Transition: future of trade and value chains--China exported 17% of what it produced in 2007, but only 9% of what it produced in 2017, about the same percentage as the U.S., but much lower than Germany's 34%, South Korea's 28%, and Japan's 14%--mckinsey.com.

• Editor's note: export-heavy countries may be at risk, particularly Germany. The EU has badly miscalculated the economic risks of Brexit for the EU, particularly Germany (the UK imports more from the EU than it exports, and Germany is most vulnerable). A 'hard Brexit,'  in conjunction with Trump's trade policies, could deliver a double whammy to Germany's already slowing economy in 2019.
• "Germany’s long expansion comes under threat, the slowing is a consequence of its export-oriented model"--economist.com.
• German Industrial Production Falls the Most Since 2009. New Orders Plummet ... a “technical recession” beckons--WolfStreet.com.

Majority Of U.S. CEOs See Trump's Tariffs Helping--"More than double the number who saw a negative impact"--zerohedge.com.and bloomberg.com.

The Bond King Retires: Bill Gross’s retirement from Janus and his  recent struggles show how hard it’s become for individual managers to beat the indexes, algorithms and sprawling trading teams that oversee today’s portfolios--bloomberg.com.

John Paulson, 63, may also be getting ready to call it a day. He said last month that he is considering booting out investors and managing only his own money within a couple of years--largely unknown until the financial crisis, when he shorted housing before everyone else recognized the bubble, his firm made $15 billion in 2007, and his personal cut was $4 billion. Read The Greatest Trade Ever.

Blackstone's Byron Wien Discusses Lessons Learned in His First 80 Years: #20 Never retire.  "If you work forever, you can live forever.  I know there is an abundance of biological evidence against this theory, but I’m going with it anyway."--blackstone.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Google announces "over $13 billion in investments throughout 2019 in data centers and offices across the U.S., with major expansions in 14 states. These new investments will give us the capacity to hire tens of thousands of employees, and enable the creation of more than 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. With this new investment, Google will now have a home in 24 total states, including data centers in 13 communities. 2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the Bay Area than in it." Google also plans to release a lower-priced smartphone this year--nikkei.com; and  Google extends chip-making efforts to a design hub in Bengaluru, India--reuters.com.

Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOGL) aggressively ramped up capital spending in 2018, spending far more than the large telecoms AT&T (T) and Verizon Communications (VZ), and other tech giants Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN).--seekingalpha.com. See also 'Why Alphabet is a better investment than Apple'.--seekingalpha.com, and Apple Faces New Challenges In App Store--seekingalpha.com.

Big Tech: Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, have become so large that even relatively modest percentage growth in any of their businesses would translate into enormous absolute change in the world--theatlantic.com.

Going short Tesla $TSLA: Druckenmiller bought Tesla Puts in Q4 2018.

Venture Capital: VCs raised $55B in 2018, but most of the increased funding went into growth rounds, which are effectively private IPOs--bothsidesofthetable.com.

Speed robotics development with the cloud--therobotreport.com.

Cut the Cord: MGM’s Epix Joins Streaming Market With Epix Now app--Variety.com.

Boeing's iconic 747:

NASA's Boeing 747 transporting the Space Shuttle

UPS ordered 14 more 747-8 freighters in 2018, and Boeing's iconic jumbo jet, now flying in the skies for more than 50 years, looks set to outlive its younger European competitor, Airbus SE’s A380, thanks to a cargo market boom fueled by online shopping.

Sprint sues AT&T over its “5G Evolution” branding, claims it is false and deceptive advertising that is damaging the reputation of actual 5G --engadget.com.

Germany, France face hurdles in push to rewrite EU antitrust rules--Vestager says global rules on subsidies and trade defense instruments, controlling foreign investments, mutual access to markets and reinforcing data protection and privacy rules should be included.

Blockchain’s Occam problem--mckinsey.com: "given the amount of money and time spent ... little of substance has been achieved." [ Editor's note: Occam’s razor is a problem-solving principle, the simplest solution tends to be the best.]

5) End Note

How to Increase Velocity: Say "No" to the Non-Essential, ruthlessly eliminate unnecessary tasks, priorities, meetings, BS; create systems and habits that help you fend off distractions; and put all your effort into the projects that really matter.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”--Steve Jobs

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Attention Amazon $AMZN Investors, Day 2 May Have Just Arrived

What's Day One at Amazon? What's Day Two?

Amazon.com, Inc., (NASDAQ: AMZN) (domain: amazon.com) video above published Apr 19, 2017: "At a recent Amazon all hands meeting, Jeff was asked 'Jeff, what does Day 2 look like?'"

“'Jeff, what does Day 2 look like?' That’s a question I just got at our most recent all-hands meeting. I’ve been reminding people that it’s Day 1 for a couple of decades. I work in an Amazon building named Day 1, and when I moved buildings, I took the name with me. I spend time thinking about this topic. 'Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.' To be sure, this kind of decline would happen in extreme slow motion. An established company might harvest Day 2 for decades, but the final result would still come. I’m interested in the question, how do you fend off Day 2? What are the techniques and tactics? How do you keep the vitality of Day 1, even inside a large organization?"--Jeff Bezos' 2016 Letter to Amazon Shareholders

Don't look now Jeff, but Day 2 may have just arrived, at your invitation:

BILLION DOLLAR DIVORCE: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he and his wife of 25 years are divorcing, which could make her the world's wealthiest woman https://t.co/r0AkXg54rC pic.twitter.com/2bb3qHXGnB

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 11, 2019

Jeff Bezos’ racy texts to Lauren Sanchez have been revealed 👀#ComplexNews pic.twitter.com/HnKKcWhk2K

— Complex (@Complex) January 11, 2019

Trump wishes Jeff Bezos good luck on his divorce https://t.co/rwljijQSNH pic.twitter.com/Y0NdhkjNyj

— The Hill (@thehill) January 11, 2019

Bezos owns approximately 16 percent of Amazon’s market cap of over $800 billion. Prominent short-seller Doug Kass, who runs hedge fund Seabreeze Partners, said he sold his stake in Amazon on news of the Bezos divorce, after initially buying a stake in late December and naming Amazon among his “best ideas list.”

Jeff, You May Be Needing This Soon:

Kohler unveiled a $7000 “intelligent toilet” called the Numi 2.0 at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas last week. It comes with built-in surround sound speakers, ambient mood lighting and Amazon Alexa, Amazon's AI voice assistant. You can talk to and ask Alexa questions while you're "doing your business." You can even ask Alexa to raise the lid as you walk into the bathroom, warm up the seat on a chilly day, change the glowing lights on the bottom of the seat, play music, and lastly, even ask Alexa to flush the toilet when you're finished.

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Amazon $AMZN Q3 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast Oct 25, 5:30pm EDT

source: statista.com

Amazon.com, Inc.

$AMZN

• NASDAQ: AMZN
• Principal domain: amazon.com
• Amazon Investor Relations: https://ir.aboutamazon.com/investor-relations

UPDATE: 

• CLICK HERE FOR WEBCAST

• Q3 2018 AMAZON.COM, INC. EARNINGS RELEASE (pdf)

• Q3 2018 AMAZON.COM INC EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL SLIDES (pdf)

Amazon.com, Inc. Q3 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast October 25, 2018, 5:30 p.m. EDT. The audio and associated slides will be available for at least three months thereafter at ir.aboutamazon.com.

Amazon -5% on Q3 revenue miss; AWS +46% Y/Y--SeekingAlpha.com.

See  also "Amazon's Focus On High Standards - Does It Matter For Investors?"--seekingalpha.com:

It's easy to take for granted how unconventional Jeff Bezos is, but his approach to Amazon's business is worth a closer look. We do a close read of the 2017 shareholder letter he published this April to see if we can better understand the company as a business and as an investment. This also is a prequel for our miniseries on Amazon to come this November. As might be expected, there's a lot to discuss.
Topics covered:
3:00 – Setting the scene – Amazon’s 4-part shareholder letter
5:00 – The intro and the key performance indicators – the unique focus of Amazon’s letter
10:00 – The letter as sign of Bezos’s triumph, and as the changing context of the Amazon story
14:00 – Customer divinity and Amazon’s high standards – investment edge?
20:30 – The meta narrative and the six steps ahead thesis
24:00 – Tackling the quality vs. value narrative again and trying to translate this into the investment case
32:15 – The perfect handstand bit and the value of handstand philosophy
40:30 – Picking apart the 6-page memo process
47:30 - Amazon’s recent milestones, and there are many of ‘em – the all-binding importance of revenue
57:45 – Riding the Treasure Truck
1:01:45 – Singing Internationale about Amazon’s human resources policies, and the Bezosian meta-narrative
1:07:45 – What does all this tell us about Amazon as an investment?
1:11:30 – 2017 vs. 1997 letter
Tweets by amazon

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Tech Review: When Amazon $AMZN Comes For Your Startup (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-10-13)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) When Amazon $AMZN Comes For Your Startup, 2) Why Blue Origin Is  Jeff Bezos's 'Most Important Work', 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, China, Venture Capital.

1) What happens when Amazon comes for your startup

CNN.com's Jon Sarlin explains why companies panic when Amazon $AMZN enters their markets and what unexpected opportunities that can bring. CNN Business video above published Oct 5, 2018. Featured startup: Porch.com "Home Improvement Simplified."

See also: "Merchants and brands that sell on Amazon are growing increasingly worried about competing directly with Amazon"--cnbc.com.

2) Why Blue Origin Is  Jeff Bezos's 'Most Important Work'

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said his company Blue Origin (blueorigin.com) is trying to build low-cost infrastructure that can reduce the expenses of space travel. CNBC.com video above published Oct 3, 2018.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite -3.7% | S&P 500 Index -4.1% | DJIA -4.2% --Editor's note: "tech stocks have borne the brunt of the recent sell-off" yet the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite is up +8.6% year-to-date as of Friday's close.

S&P 500 Likely To Report Earnings Growth Above 20% For Third Straight Quarter--factset.com.

"This reset to normal Treasury volatility means equity market volatility will also move off its lows, so expect wider swings in stock prices from here on out ... this reset is not a sign “The end is nigh” for the rally in US stocks. Getting back to “Normal” volatility in stocks and bonds is actually a healthy sign."--DataTrekResearch.com

Wall Street's Charging Bull

Investing Notes:

Higher rates don't kill bull markets, the data says. pic.twitter.com/EnJXFNvP4z

— Brian Sozzi (@BrianSozzi) October 9, 2018

Gundlach Says Trump "Crazy Like A Fox" For Blaming Fed For Market Rout--zerohedge.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Amazon $AMZN vs Google $GOOG $GOOGL: "Some advertisers are moving more than half of the budget they normally spend with Google search to Amazon ads instead, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars"--CNBC.com.

The Apple $AAPL $600 million deal to acquire critical iPhone technology, patents, and people from Anglo-German chip designer Dialog is not only unusual, but also the largest of its kind by Apple--reuters.com.

Microsoft $MSFT Clears Hurdle For US DOD $10 Billion JEDI Cloud Computing Contract as Google Drops Out--law360.com and TheHill.com.

Alphabet appeals the record $5B fine imposed by European Union antitrust regulators for Google's practices involving Android--reuters.com. See also Google shuts down Google+ after API bug exposed details for over 500,000 users--zdnet.com.

Facebook's WhatsApp builds system to comply with India's payments data storage norm--reuters.com. See also newsroom.fb.com: Facebook breach (between July 2017 and September 2018) investigation: large-scale attack on Sept. 14-27 accessed info of about 29 million people.

Twitter TWTR: Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), has opened a GDPR investigation of Twitter (Twitter’s European operations are headquartered in Dublin, Ireland).

China: US Department of Justice announced the arrest and extradition of Yanjun Xu, high-ranking director in China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), the country's counter-intelligence and foreign intelligence agency. Xu was arrested for attempting to commit economic espionage and steal trade secrets after trying to recruit several insiders from multiple US aviation and aerospace companies--zdnet.com. See also "China reportedly is weaponizing the technology supply chain"--TheHill.com.

Saudi Arabia says it will invest $45 billion in SoftBank's planned second Vision Fund--Bloomberg.com.

Venture Capital Investment in US companies to hit $100B in 2018: "There are more than 2.5 months remaining in 2018 and already U.S. companies have raised $84.1 billion--more than all of 2017--across 6,583 VC deals as of Sept. 30, 2018"--TechCrunch.com. See also Kirsten Green, the VC behind Warby Parker, Glossier, and Jet.com has raised a new $360 million fund--FastCompany.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin Moving Beyond Space Travel (video)

Blue Origin Is Moving Beyond Space Travel

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin just landed a big military launch contract. Fortune.com video above published Sep 27, 2018. See also Jeff Bezos explains why Blue Origin is 'the most important work I'm doing'--cnbc.com.

Domain: BlueOrigin.com

Blue Origin, LLC is a privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability.

• Owner & Founder: Jeff Bezos
• Founded: September 8, 2000
• Number of employees: 1,500 (2018)
• Type of business: Privately held company

Tweets by blueorigin

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Inside The New Amazon 4-Star Store in New York City (video)

Inside Amazon's New 4-Star Store

Amazon $AMZN opened a new store in New York last week that's unlike anything the company has ever done before. Located in the city's SoHo neighborhood, the store is known as Amazon 4-star (amazon.com/4-star).

See also: Introducing Amazon 4-star | blog.aboutamazon.com.

Amazon 4-star sells what the e-commerce giant considers to be some of its most popular or best-rated merchandise on its website. The store is a longer-term real estate deal, compared with the pop-up shops and mall kiosks that Amazon has tested in the past. It shows Amazon is serious about investing in bricks-and-mortar retail after its acquisition of Whole Foods and the gradual rollout of its cashier-less convenience stores across the U.S. Inside the new shop in SoHo, one will find everything from quirky kitchen gifts like a triceratops taco holder to popular books, board games, laptops, Alexa-enabled devices and even items from Amazon's in-house brands, like Amazon Basics. CNBC.com video above published Sep 27, 2018.

Amazon 4-star opens tomorrow in the SoHo neighborhood of #NYC – check out a sneak peek of the store here: https://t.co/tA2G8zI5OK pic.twitter.com/UYD0UeEkA5

— Amazon News (@amazonnews) September 26, 2018

Tweets by amazonnews

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders vs Amazon $AMZN & Jeff Bezos (video)

Senator Bernie Sanders: "Get Amazon Off of Corporate Welfare"

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders video above published Aug 24, 2018: "Thousands of Amazon workers are on food stamps while their boss, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man in the world."

Amazon Speaks Out Against Bernie Sanders’ Accusations

Fortune.com video above published Aug 29, 2018: Amazon speaks out against Senator Bernie Sanders’ accusations re: the company’s working conditions and wages.

See also:

• Amazon blog post: Response to Senator Sanders | blog.aboutamazon.com Aug 29, 2018

• Share Your Experiences Working at Amazon | sanders.senate.gov

• Senator Sanders' videos here and here.

Tweets by SenSanders

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Amazon HQ2, Which City Will Win? Follow the Money (video)

Amazon HQ2: Which City Will Win Jeff Bezos' Heart?

Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) video above published Aug 9, 2018: As Amazon searches for a location for its new second headquarters—dubbed HQ2—cities across the country have been trying to woo the tech giant. At stake: 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investments.

Amazon HQ2: Top Twenty Finalists

See also on Domain Mondo:

• Amazon HQ2: The Winner Is… DC Metro, New York Metro, or Miami?

• Amazon $AMZN HQ2: 50,000 High-Paying Jobs, $5 Billion Investment

• Tech Review | Amazon HQ2: Second Headquarters North America (video)

• Jeff Bezos Empire: Amazon $AMZN, Blue Origin, WaPo, Bezos Expeditions

The below infographic may be the kind of data Amazon is looking at: the 22 Cities With the Most $1 Million Homes in the U.S. and the median value of all homes in each of those cities--

Courtesy of: VisualCapitalist.com

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Amazon $AMZN Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast July 26, 5:30pm EDT

Q2 2018 Amazon.com, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Thursday, July 26, 2018, 5:30 p.m. EDT
Webcast Presentation: Click here for webcast
NASDAQ: AMZN

$AMZN

Q2 2018 earnings release excerpts: "Second Quarter Sales up 39% to $52.9 Billion--Operating cash flow increased 22% to $21.8 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $17.8 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Free cash flow increased to $10.4 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $9.6 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Free cash flow less lease principal repayments decreased to $4.1 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $5.4 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Free cash flow less finance lease principal repayments and assets acquired under capital leases decreased to $546 million for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.4 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 506 million on June 30, 2018, compared with 502 million one year ago. Net sales increased 39% to $52.9 billion in the second quarter, compared with $38.0 billion in second quarter 2017. Excluding the $760 million favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 37% compared with second quarter 2017.Operating income increased to $3.0 billion in the second quarter, compared with operating income of $628 million in second quarter 2017. Net income increased to $2.5 billion in the second quarter, or $5.07 per diluted share, compared with net income of $197 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, in second quarter 2017. “We want customers to be able to use Alexa wherever they are,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “There are now tens of thousands of developers across more than 150 countries building new devices using the Alexa Voice Service, and the number of Alexa-enabled devices has more than tripled in the past year. Our partners are creating a wide variety of new Alexa-enabled devices and experiences, including soundbars from Polk and Sonos; headphones from Jabra; smart home devices from ecobee and First Alert; Windows 10 PCs from Acer, HP, and Lenovo; and cars from automakers including BMW, Ford, and Toyota.”

See also: Amazon Earnings Just Proved It's the Most Prolific FANG Stock--thestreet.com: "The e-commerce retailer and cloud services provider smashed Wall Street profit forecasts for the second quarter, posting $5.02 a share vs. estimates for $2.49 a share. Amazon hit all the key notes for the bulls who have sent shares up 50% year to date."

source: Statista.com

source: Statista.com

Tweets by awscloud

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Amazon $AMZN Annual Report, Jeff Bezos Letter to Amazon Shareholders

Amazon.com, Inc., a global e-commerce and cloud computing corporation headquartered in Seattle, Washington, founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994.

Stock exchange: symbol | NASDAQ: AMZN close 19 Apr 2018: 1,556.91 USD  UP $29.07 +1.90%
Market capitalization $753.71 Billion.

Amazon - Investor Relations - 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders:
May 30, 2018  9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. PDT
Fremont Studios, 155 N 35th St.,  Seattle, WA 98103
More information, including how "to attend the meeting in person" at link above.

Amazon  Investor Relations Q1 2018 results webcast:
Q1 2018 Amazon.com, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Thursday, April 26, 2018 2:30 p.m. PDT / 5:30 p.m. EDT
Webcast Presentation--Click here for webcast
Slides:

Amazon - Investor Relations - Press Release 26 Apr 2018: "Amazon.com Announces First Quarter Sales up 43% to $51.0 Billion ... financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2018. Operating cash flow increased 4% to $18.2 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $17.5 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2017. Free cash flow decreased to $7.3 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $10.1 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2017. Free cash flow less lease principal repayments decreased to $1.1 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $6.1 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2017. Free cash flow less finance lease principal repayments and assets acquired under capital leases decreased to an outflow of $3.0 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with an inflow of $3.3 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2017. Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 504 million on March 31, 2018, compared with 497 million one year ago. Net sales increased 43% to $51.0 billion in the first quarter, compared with $35.7 billion in first quarter 2017. Excluding the $1.6 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 39% compared with first quarter 2017. Operating income increased 92% to $1.9 billion in the first quarter, compared with operating income of $1.0 billion in first quarter 2017. Net income was $1.6 billion in the first quarter, or $3.27 per diluted share, compared with net income of $724 million, or $1.48 per diluted share, in first quarter 2017. “AWS had the unusual advantage of a seven-year head start before facing like-minded competition, and the team has never slowed down,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “As a result, the AWS services are by far the most evolved and most functionality-rich. AWS lets developers do more and be nimbler, and it continues to get even better every day. That’s why you’re seeing this remarkable acceleration in AWS growth, now for two quarters in a row. A huge thank you to all our AWS customers, and you can be sure we’ll keep working hard for you.”..."--Read more at link above, full embed of Amazon.com Inc. financial results for Q1 2018 embed below:

2017 Annual Report (includes Letter from Jeff Bezos* to Amazon Shareholders) (pdf) (embed below); *published annually since 1997, the 'Bezos letter' is considered a must-read for many, including analysts, investors, executives, and entrepreneurs. Annual Report also includes annual SEC form 10-K.

*Jeffrey P. Bezos has been Chairman of the Board of Amazon.com since founding it in 1994 and Chief Executive Officer since May 1996. Bezos served as President of the Company from founding until June 1999 and again from October 2000 to the present.

In his letter to Amazon shareholders below, Bezos notes Amazon Prime now has over 100 million members worldwide, adding more Prime members in 2017 than any prior year, and shipping over five billion items via the paid membership service worldwide. Bezos also reports the most sales of Amazon devices last year, including "tens of millions" Echo devices. Bezos also writes that "technical work" is under way to bring Prime member benefits to Whole Foods.

 Charts (above and below) source: Statista.com

 Smart Speakers: Amazon vs Apple vs Google


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Tech Review | India Fines Google, China Fines Alibaba & Tencent (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-02-17)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) India Fines Google, 2) China Fines Alibaba & Tencent, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: What's REALLY Going On? and more, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Elon Musk's Broadband-From-Space Plan, and more.

1) Google fined $21 million in India over competition abuse

Google has been fined $21 million by Indian competition authorities for abusing its market dominance, as global regulators continue to crack down on the US tech giant’s handling of online search queries. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Feb 8, 2018:
Statista.com May 18, 2017

2) China fines Alibaba and Tencent over payments systems

China tech groups Alibaba and Tencent have been caught up in Beijing’s war on capital flight, with both facing fines for breaches of cross-border foreign exchange payments. Financial Times (ft.com)  video above published Feb 9, 2018.

See also: Facebook loses Belgian privacy case, faces fine of up to $125 million | Reuters.com

3) Investing

The Week: Dow & S&P 500, need I say more?

Wall Street's Charging Bull:

Investing Notes:

• What's REALLY Going On?--ZeroHedge.com: "... A more robust explanation is the Fed is tightening two ways: The first by hiking [interest rates], the second by letting assets on the balance sheet roll off. Both measures have a tendency to push up long-term interest rates. This is another explanation for the long-end rising. Despite conventional wisdom, inflation and wages have little to do with it ..."
• Businesses Will Power Right Through Higher Interest Rates, Says Blackstone’s CEO | CNBC.com via YouTube.com (video)

• How Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ is being rigged, according to one whistleblower | MarketWatch.com

• Shorting the Eurozone: The world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater, has added another $9 billion worth of shorts against European public companies, totaling $22 billion overall. Source: ZeroHedge.com

• Credit Suisse hit by U.S. lawsuit over writedowns | Reuters.com.

• Barclay's: Another Big British Bank Lands in Deep Trouble | WolfStreet.com: ".... The bank now boasts one of the longest rap sheets of any bank in Europe, which — given the pedigree of the local competition, including Deutsche Bank, HSBC, RBS, UBS, BNP and Credit Suisse — is no mean feat."

• China: S&P Global Ratings says China to see first bond default by a local government financing vehicle in 2018 | South China Morning Post | scmp.com: S&P also expects the number of defaults in the world’s second-biggest economy to increase as companies fall victim to tightening liquidity.
• IEA Warns Of New Oil Glut | ZeroHedge.com

• Cryptocurrency Regulation Boosts Markets | SeekingAlpha.com: "Cryptocurrencies are recovering as regulation starts to be viewed as an accolade rather than a burden."
• "Russians Did Not Alter The Outcome Of The Elections": Highlights From Rosenstein's Press Conference | ZeroHedge,com Feb 16, 2018 Deputy AG Rosenstein: "There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the [Russians'] conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election."--see https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download

• Poll: GOP gains on generic ballot, Trump approval ticks upward | POLITICO.com Feb 14, 2018: "Republicans have erased the Democratic advantage on the generic congressional ballot in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll."

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Elon Musk's Broadband-From-Space Plan Clears Crucial U.S. Hurdle | Bloomberg.com: "FCC chief Pai backs SpaceX new method of internet service - SpaceX had requested authority to deploy 4,425 satellites."
• Study Backs Up Creeping Feeling That Facebook Is Just for Old People Now | gizmodo.com

• Bringing the power of AMP to Gmail | blog.google

• Google is replacing Facebook’s traffic to publishers | Recode.net: "more publishers have been signing up for the Google publishing format launched in 2015 known as Accelerated Mobile Pages. AMP hosts publishers’ content directly on Google’s servers so it loads faster for mobile users"

• Singapore May Start Taxing Amazon and Lazada | Bloomberg.com: "Most economists expect new e-commerce tax in 2018 budget Southeast Asia online retail may be worth $65 billion by 2021."
• Washington and Silicon Valley Are At War Over Chinese Tech | NewRepublic.com: "after years of cooperation, Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley are, increasingly, at odds"
• A Chinese Company Has Conquered a Piece of America | Bloomberg.com

• Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Can’t Beat Washington, So He’s Joining It | Bloomberg.com: "In the past five years, Amazon increased lobbying spending by more than 400 percent."

From the Reuters.com feed:

• German court rules Facebook use of personal data illegal

• Mi mi mi: super fans of China's Xiaomi stoke IPO ambitions

• EU says Bayer Monsanto must not hurt competition in digital farming: paper

• Germany's Lame Duck: Scenarios for a Merkel exit: “It is clear to everyone that the chancellor is going into a last term.”--Merkel defends painful coalition concessions, denies authority waning: Merkel and her party were damaged in the September 2017 election, a backlash vote led by voters angered by her decision in 2015 to welcome more than a million immigrants.

• #MeToo? Glass ceiling for dogs? Males win Westminster almost twice as often.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER